Improve documentation about handling C++ exceptions in wx programs.

Try to explain the different exception handling strategies more clearly in the
overview and also update OnUnhandledException() documentation.

git-svn-id: https://svn.wxwidgets.org/svn/wx/wxWidgets/trunk@66205 c3d73ce0-8a6f-49c7-b76d-6d57e0e08775
This commit is contained in:
Vadim Zeitlin
2010-11-18 14:10:15 +00:00
parent 8b3eb4a069
commit 7dbd713731
2 changed files with 56 additions and 35 deletions

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@@ -28,10 +28,10 @@ wxWidgets, even using the exceptions in the user code was dangerous because the
library code wasn't exception-safe and so an exception propagating through it
could result in memory and/or resource leaks, and also not very convenient.
wxWidgets is exception-friendly.
It still doesn't use the exceptions by itself but it should be now safe to use the
exceptions in the user code and the library tries to help you with this. Please
note that making the library exception-safe is still work in progress.
However the recent wxWidgets versions are exception-friendly. This means that
while the library still doesn't use the exceptions by itself, it should be now
safe to use the exceptions in the user code and the library tries to help you
with this.
@section overview_exceptions_strategies Strategies for exceptions handling
@@ -42,35 +42,50 @@ any exceptions by itself and so you don't have to worry about exceptions at all
unless your own code throws them. This is, of course, the simplest solution but
may be not the best one to deal with all possible errors.
Another strategy is to use exceptions only to signal truly fatal errors. In
this case you probably don't expect to recover from them and the default
behaviour -- to simply terminate the program -- may be appropriate. If it is
not, you may override wxApp::OnUnhandledException()
in your wxApp-derived class to perform any clean up tasks. Note, however, that
any information about the exact exception type is lost when this function is
called, so if you need you should override wxApp::OnRun() and
add a try/catch clause around the call of the base class version. This would
allow you to catch any exceptions generated during the execution of the main
event loop. To deal with the exceptions which may arise during the program
startup and/or shutdown you should insert try/catch clauses in
wxApp::OnInit() and/or wxApp::OnExit() as well.
The next simplest strategy is to only use exceptions inside non-GUI code, i.e.
never let unhandled exceptions escape the event handler in which it happened.
In this case using exceptions in wxWidgets programs is not different from using
them in any other C++ program.
Finally, you may also want to continue running even when certain exceptions
occur. If all of your exceptions may happen only in the event handlers of a
single class (or only in the classes derived from it), you may centralize your
exception handling code in wxApp::ProcessEvent
method of this class. If this is impractical, you may also consider overriding
the wxApp::HandleEvent() which allows you to handle
all the exceptions thrown by any event handler.
Things get more interesting if you decide to let (at least some) exceptions
escape from the event handler in which they occurred. Such exceptions will be
caught by wxWidgets and the special wxApp::OnExceptionInMainLoop() method will
be called from the @c catch clause. This allows you to decide in a single place
what to do about such exceptions: you may want to handle the exception somehow
or terminate the program. In this sense, OnExceptionInMainLoop() is equivalent
to putting a @c try/catch block around the entire @c main() function body in
the traditional console programs. However notice that, as its name indicates,
this method won't help you with the exceptions thrown before the main loop is
started or after it is over, so you may still want to have @c try/catch in your
overridden wxApp::OnInit() and wxApp::OnExit() methods too, otherwise
wxApp::OnUnhandledException() will be called.
Finally, notice that even if you decide to not let any exceptions escape in
this way, this still may happen unexpectedly in a program using exceptions as a
result of a bug. So consider always overriding OnExceptionInMainLoop() in your
wxApp-derived class if you use exceptions in your program, whether you expect
it to be called or not. In the latter case you may simple re-throw the
exception and let it bubble up to OnUnhandledException() as well.
To summarize, when you use exceptions in your code, you may handle them in the
following places, in order of priority:
-# In a @c try/catch block inside an event handler.
-# In wxApp::OnExceptionInMainLoop().
-# In wxApp::OnUnhandledException().
In the first two cases you may decide whether you want to handle the exception
and continue execution or to exit the program. In the last one the program is
about to exit already so you can just try to save any unsaved data and notify
the user about the problem (while being careful not to throw any more
exceptions as otherwise @c std::terminate() will be called).
@section overview_exceptions_tech Technicalities
To use any kind of exception support in the library you need to build it
with @c wxUSE_EXCEPTIONS set to 1. This should be the case by default but
if it isn't, you should edit the @c include/wx/msw/setup.h file under
Windows or run @c configure with @c --enable-exceptions argument
under Unix.
with @c wxUSE_EXCEPTIONS set to 1. It is turned on by default but you may
wish to check @c include/wx/msw/setup.h file under Windows or run @c configure
with explicit @c --enable-exceptions argument under Unix.
On the other hand, if you do not plan to use exceptions, setting this
flag to 0 or using @c --disable-exceptions could result in a leaner and